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Cherie Bennett, author of the young adult series books TEEN ANGELS, SUNSET ISLAND, WILD HEARTS, and TRASH, joined us at Teenreads.com for a chat on December 17, 1997. Teenreads.com: I'd like to welcome our guest for tonight, YA author Cherie Bennett! I should add that Jeff Gottesfeld, Cherie's husband and manager, is sitting in a rocking chair next to Cherie. Hi Jeff and Cherie. AuthorChik: A gorgeous night in Nashville, Tennessee... Teenreads.com: Cool (P.S. LOVE Nashville.)... AuthorChik: (demonstrating some great taste on your part!) It's a good place to live. Teenreads.com: Let's start off with a question. AuthorChik: Fire away. Teenreads.com: Cherie, you are not only the author of over 35 books, but the author of a play and stage adaption as well. That's quite an achievement! How do you keep such a pace? AuthorChik: First, I love to write. Second, I love to write. And third... AuthorChik: I really do feel the clock ticking, a little. I have so many projects that I want to do, and I know that I can't live forever. For example, there is play that Jeff and I have been talking about for eight years now, that I just haven't had time to do yet. I am dying to write it, too. Teenreads.com: What kind of play? AuthorChik: For adults, actually. About issues of race relations in America in the 90s. Although by the time I get to write it, it's going to be the next century! Teenreads.com: Sounds pretty cool though. Where do you get your ideas? Magazines, your imagination, art...? AuthorChik: I just love writing. And I don't teach or anything, so I can concentrate on writing alone. AuthorChik: How about Jerry Springer's show for inspiration??? :) For the teen series TRASH, that is. Ideas come from all over. Right to the side of my desk is a drawer, and it is filled with newspaper clippings etc. Teenreads.com: Which of your books, Cherie, is your favorite? AuthorChik: Which of my books is my fave? The one that comes out in early March, LIFE IN THE FAT LANE. No question. Most important novel I've ever written. By a lot. Teenreads.com: It's really a great book ... I think a lot of people, especially teen girls, can relate to it... Can you give us a little plot summary? AuthorChik: I appreciate that. You know, I get between 50 and 200 letters a week from teen girls...and so many of them are about the issue of that book. Okay, a plot preview: If it were going to be tabloid headline, this would be it: PROM QUEEN GAINS 100 POUNDS!! And it happens to her in one year. And then, her family moves her from her old high school to a new city in a new state, so the prom queen becomes the new fat girl. Could you guys imagine? Teenreads.com: The book deals a lot with body image, self-esteem, and weight issues. Did you get a lot of inspiration from reader mail?... I know you get so much of it! AuthorChik: True. But I hope that I explode a number of myths as well. For example, the self-esteem myth. What a concept, huh? And yes, the mail I get inspired me to do this book. There are so many girls like y'all who are dying a little inside every time they look in the mirror! Teenreads.com: I think we can all relate to that at times. AuthorChik: Me for sure. Teenreads.com: I'm going to take an audience question... Bookpg ART: Cherie, are you going to write anymore Suset Island Books? AuthorChik: I was just talking with my editor about this today. AuthorChik: Berkley is going to make a decision really soon about publishing more. AuthorChik: They suggest that you send email to online@putnam.com if you want to push the editors! I'd love to do more books. Teenreads.com: Who is your favorite character in this series? AuthorChik: My fave character? What if I said it was the girl you love to hate, Diana De Witt? (actually, sunset fans, it's sam) Teenreads.com: It's true that it is fun to love the girl you love to hate ... they are so interesting! AuthorChik: It's the reason Sami is so popular on DAYS. Teenreads.com: How do you come up with ideas for characters? Do you ever base them on real life people? AuthorChik: Base characters on real life people? Absolutely. Pres in SUNSET is based on my husband Jeff, as is Jimi in HORROR INK. AuthorChik: Well, kinda! Teenreads.com: Jimi, really? AuthorChik: Jeff looked like him when he was in high school. AuthorChik: Other characters come out of my childhood, and some comple, Bridget Miracle, in HORROR INK, got her name from a girl who wrote me a letter. Teenreads.com: Does she know this? AuthorChik: I thought the name was too cool. So I borrowed it. Will I go to jail over this? :) AuthorChik: If she's on AOL she knows now. AuthorChik: If you're gonna do something like that, it's best to make the girl a great character. AuthorChik: I certainly don't know anyone named Mr. Peevish. AuthorChik: Though I think I had him for eleventh grade english. Teenreads.com: Speaking of Horror Ink ... I know you had a chance to read over everyone's terrific paths and you wrote three amazing paths for Chapter 6. AuthorChik: The paths written by readers were fabulous. AuthorChik: I loved that Peevish died in one of them. AuthorChik: Well, he deserved it, no? Teenreads.com: He was so PEEVISH...ew. Teenreads.com: I'm glad that TBB is really getting into this. AuthorChik: Which paths do readers seem to prefer? Teenreads.com: Audience? Aria, maybe? Have you read up on Horror Ink? Bookpg ART: We have a Horror Ink chat at the Lounge every other week on Wednesdays at 9PM ET. Nellie83: I have just started Chapter 3 path 1 Bookpg ART: We discuss what paths we like and who's going to write what.:) AuthorChik: It's been fun for me to write...my longtime readers know that I haven't much ventured in blood fiction... AuthorChik: So I was trying to find a way to do it with a twist. I hope I succeeded. Teenreads.com: And Cherie, it's so gory! If I hadn't met you in person and known what a great person you are...I would think you'd be a little scary, blood obsessed maybe? AuthorChik: That's why they call it blood lust, no? :) AuthorChik: It does get kind of addictive. Bookpg ART: One path that I found interesting was when they killed off Bridget's little sister! AuthorChik: What's fun is to try to keep the series somewhat real, with the relationships, and then layer on the other stuff. Teenreads.com: Cherie, are you planning on making movies out any of your books? AuthorChik: Ah...the movie question. Our life in Hollywood has been a HORROR INK of its own! Teenreads.com: Do tell AuthorChik: WILD HEARTS (Archway, 1993), went all the way to final script, it was about to be shot, and then the funding fell through. That was a nightmare. Then, Univeral/MCA picked up TEEN ANGELS for a TV series but the one on the air now on ABC isn't it...So you can see, it's been a rough road. All you can do is write your best. When books go to film/tv, uncontrollable things happen, anyway. AuthorChik: That's one reason I like to write plays so much...what I write is what I get. Teenreads.com: Hopefully, we'll be seeing Cherie on the silver screen...your comments bring up another question. How do you keep writing when the going is rough? How, to back up, do you actually sit down and write? AuthorChik: It's the same for me as for teen in school. You just have to find a way to clear your mind and do it. The one good thing is now, I know that I what I write I'm going to see in print within 18 months or two years, and often quicker than that. Aria asks if I'm writing teen angels books... AuthorChik: Do you like those books, Aria? AuthorChik: I love them too. It broke our hearts when Avon stopped the series after book 6. Why don't you tell the others about them, ok? And why you liked them. Teenreads.com: Aria, you should be Cherie's personal publicity coordinator... AuthorChik: (she is.) Teenreads.com: Aria, want to tell us about these books? Aria83: Okay, it's about these 3 girls, all different from another. Aria83: They all died and got sent to teen heaven AuthorChik: (which is just like earth...teen heaven high school, etc.) Teenreads.com: Of course...LOL Marlene T: LOL! AuthorChik: And after-skool jobs at the Mall Over America. AuthorChik: no, it's true! AuthorChik: There's grown-up heaven already. It's called Paris. Or chocolate ice cream, I'm not sure which. AuthorChik: Here's the thing about TEEN ANGELS. Teen angels did get sent down to earth on missions in my books...just as Aria says. Teenreads.com: What kinds of missions? Aria83: While they are in heaven, they all get sent on missions back to earth to do some hard tasks. AuthorChik: But in other books, and on TV, angels always have magic powers, etc. etc. AuthorChik: In TEEN ANGELS, no magic powers. They're just like you or me. AuthorChik: So the kicker is...we all have the power to act like angels here on earth, all the time. Teenreads.com: Sounds like you had fun writing this series. AuthorChik: I loved writing this series. Teen Heaven was run by JD, who looked SUSPICIOUSLY like James Dean. Teenreads.com: Hmmm...same haircut? AuthorChik: Same haircut, same eyes, and he knew an awful lot about REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE Teenreads.com: One of my favorites. Teenreads.com: Aria, thanks for your great comments! AuthorChik: It was painful, letting that series go at book six, with no closure at all. At least with SUNSET, I was able to write a closing book last summer. Now, I'd like to write a sequel. Teenreads.com: That would be awesome. BookpgOz: Aria, see you later. Please come back soon :) AuthorChik: My fave TEEN ANGELS book is #4, where one of the girls had a mission to work with a horse killer. AuthorChik: Aria, send me some email. I'll answer. Teenreads.com: I know that you've been writing since you were, wow...11 years old... AuthorChik: Yes... Teenreads.com: How did you begin? And when did you really take off and write professionally? AuthorChik: It took off around 1989. I'd just met Jeff, and he'd read one of my plays and told me he was going to produce it. Teenreads.com:Great break. AuthorChik: And then, on the book side, an agent had read a manuscript of mine, and I BEGGED her to try to get me work. So I got lucky. She got me a gig writing under a pseudonym pen name for a younger reader series called THE PARTY LINE. Teenreads.com: What was your penname? AuthorChik: Then Berkley offered me SUNSET ISLAND. Three girls, au pairs, resort island. That was the outline they gave me. My penname then was Carrie Austen. Lame-o, huh? Teenreads.com: I like Cherie Bennett a lot better. It has flair. AuthorChik: (I didn't choose it. I would have chosen something cool, like Aria). Bennett was my dad's name. Sigh. Teenreads.com: And so they just gave you an outline and you took off with it? AuthorChik: Not even an outline. Just three girls, au pairs, resort island, and go for it. I went for it. Teenreads.com: And you've been writing steadily ever since! AuthorChik: And I did my best not to make them just weenie make-out books. I hope I succeeded. AuthorChik: Okay. If I had my choice now, I'd write a little less. Teenreads.com: What would you do? AuthorChik: LIFE IN THE FAT LANE took two years to write, and I think the quality of it speaks for itself. Teenreads.com: Definitely!! :) AuthorChik: And I'd write more plays. I love to write plays. It's tough, though. AuthorChik: Which is why there are so many, well, bad plays out there. Teenreads.com: What are some of the differences in writing plays and books? AuthorChik: Writing plays is like writing in prison, in some ways. You are constrained entirely by set and setting. If that makes any sense. In a book, you can go anywhere. However, there is NOTHING as powerful as a good play. Not a movie, not a TV show, not even a book. A play can grip its audience like no other art form. It's magic. Teenreads.com: Maybe that's why I always feel so inspired after being at the theatre. BookpgOz: Seems to me it'd be hard to switch from genre to genre AuthorChik: It would seem that way, but it's not. Kind of like putting fresh batteries in, actually. Bookpg ART: What do you plan on doing with Horror Ink when it's finished? AuthorChik: Let me turn that around to you. What would you like to see done with it? Teenreads.com: We'll have three online books, written by TBB-ers and Cherie...and it would be nice to poll TBB readers, as Cherie is suggesting. And find out what they would like to do with HORROR INK.. Bookpg ART: I would like to see it maybe published, or be an on-line book... AuthorChik: Or maybe just the online novel that never ends... Bookpg ART: What you could do, is get another contest started for someone to draw a cover.. AuthorChik: Now, that's a great idea, about the cover art. Teenreads.com: It will definitely be archived in TBB...that' s a good idea, Art! Bookpg ART: And if it just stays on-line you could keep that cover.:) Bookpg ART: Thanks:) Teenreads.com: Sounds great! Teenreads.com: We have time for one more question. AuthorChik: We'll give Art credit by naming a chracter for him, and then killing him off. Bookpg ART: LOL Teenreads.com: Hee hee Marlene T: LOL! AuthorChik: Something really gruesome. Maybe being photocopied to death or something. Teenreads.com: LOL! Marlene T: Or Instant Messaged to death. ;) Teenreads.com: Which has happened to me! Teenreads.com: What or who has most inspired your career, Cherie? AuthorChik: Inspiration for my career? That's easy. You'd just have to see my office. AuthorChik: Let me explain. One entire wall is covered, floor to ceiling, with photos of my fans. Girls have sent me their pictures in letters. And they just cover the wall. 1000s of them. AuthorChik: On the opposite wall, are nine photos, grouped together, all 8 x10s. AuthorChik: These other photos are children and teens, nine of them, who lived through or died in the Holocaust. Anne Frank is there, but also eight you've never heard of. And that's it. That's my inspiration. Looking down on me as I write.The wall blank around them. AuthorChik: I feel it's my responsibility. AuthorChik: And it's a consummate honor to do it. Teenreads.com: Cherie, any last comments about this or anything else before we say goodnight? AuthorChik: I enjoyed it! Let's do this again once FAT LANE pubs. I think that book is going to be VERY controversial. Teenreads.com: I know I'm going to review it for TBB... AuthorChik: Thanks for the time and for having me. Teenreads.com: Thanks so much for joining us! AuthorChik: I'd love that. It's a book where NOTHING is as you'd expect it to be... have great holidays... Bookpg ART: Come to one of our horror Ink chats if you have the time:) AuthorChik: and we'll see you in TBB. AuthorChik: cool beans. Peace out. Teenreads.com: Bye everyone!! Marlene T: Bye and thanks Ms. Bennett! :) © Copyright 1997-2002, Teenreads.com |
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